In a Metal Mood

Forced to make an emergency trip home due to a slightly suicidal laptop, I found myself yesterday with no ability to make my usual random mixes for long boring drives. These mixes contain the most bizarre transitions possible, creating a jarring mixture of every genre I can think of. Without such a mix, I often find myself falling asleep during the more repetitive parts of the drive. And when the entire drive is composed of highway nothingness and flight farmland, the repetitive part is the entire drive.

However, I discovered my saving grace while searching through the random cds hanging around my dorm room. Metal. Or more specifically, super fast scumbag thrash-until-your-ears-bleed metal. It's the perfect accompaniment to driving, keeping a nice fast tempo that matches the speed of the car while being loud and obnoxious enough to keep a narcoleptic awake.

In tribute to remembering this saving grace for the road, here are three bands to look for if you need something for those long drives.

1. Metallica- Alright, so picking one of top three metal bands ever, at least in popularity, is a bit obvious, but still it has to be said. Take anything from their first, Kill 'Em All through the Black Album, Metallica. After that, things start to get a bit iffy, slow, and occasionally boring, which is the last thing anyone needs while trying to stay awake on the road.

2. Megadeth- To those who know of metal but aren't really fans, Megadeth can seem like the K-Mart to Metallica's Wal Mart. They're mainstream and have a large fan base, but they seem to be the lesser of the two, with a lead singer who's a Metallica alumni. However, Megadeth is probably even faster than Metallica, more ridiculous and therefore more fun, and also have some awesome songs. "Peaces Sells...," "Symphony of Destruction," and "Hangar 18" are incredible.

3. DragonForce- A more recent pick, these guys take pride in how fast they play. The drumming sounds more like heavy automatic weaponry rather than any kind of instrument. Of course, there's also the disadvantage their lyrics sound like Dungeons and Dragons rejects, with more over-the-top fantasy and falsetto singing than anyone could reasonably desire. However, if you ignore the lyrics, the playing is amazing and the songs are energizing. And anyway, sometimes driving on the highway with semi-trucks and bad drivers feels like an epic life-or-death battle.

There is plenty more metal music out there (Sepultura is amazing, but South American death metal is a little too much for most people), and plenty more music that's perfect for driving. Anyone else have any particular favorites for the road?